John Merrell, formerly co-head of listings at NYSE, is heading up corporate services at GTS, a high-speed trading firm that in January bought Barclays’ designated market maker (DMM) business, making it the largest DMM at the NYSE.
As the main liaison between GTS and issuers, Merrell vows to keep doing what he says he’s always done: take care of listed companies.
‘We’ll be able to provide cutting-edge content to issuers about how their stock is traded, not only on the NYSE but across all markets,’ says Merrell, who is familiar to IROs at NYSE-listed companies. ‘New listings will turn their head more toward GTS.’
More than 1,200 issuers have GTS as their DMM and Merrell hopes to expand that roster by working with IROs and CFOs, who are often involved in selecting a DMM at the time of listing.
Barclays was the last of the big banks to quit market making on the NYSE floor, following in the footsteps of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs in recent years. GTS and three other automated trading firms – Virtu Financial, KCG and IMC – now dominate the DMM business.
